My Creative Space

I don't have a studio or even a sewing room but what I do have is the room formerly known as the playroom.


The playroom also contains the stereo, many books, the computer,the piano and the window seat.
I share it with the whole family and the cats and dog and you walk through this room to get to the loungeroom.
In fact since we took away the leadlight dividing doors it is all the one biggish room.


I'm sure my creative clutter drives my husband mad.

I do try to keep it all looking nice but have you noticed how well fabric piles grow without any care required.
I get this little piece and that little piece out of the cupboard and then I search for another piece and then the pile is just a little bit taller.
Magic.

I keep my patterns contained in the old cupboard, the fabric is in the bottom two thirds of the cupboard.
The cupboard came from my sister's house , the one before the one before the one before the one before the one she lives in now.


I sit on a wicker chair with the cushion my mum knitted to make it a little more comfortable and the old round patchwork cushion behind my back.

I have a little set of drawers, an op shop treasure, an old bedside set of drawers that Kate painted with butterflies and other creatures when she was about five.

This is where I keep all the little bits and bobs, yarn labels, business cards,mine and other peoples, sometimes a chocolate bar or some cashew nuts, birthday cards - you know- all the stuff you need to have around you.


I work on a plastic trestle table that mum and dad bought for extra table space a couple of Christmases ago.
I have given it a green gingham dress so it doesn't look so stark and plastic in the middle of the room.


Near the window seat, on the other side of my work table is an old chair that used to belong to Nonna.
Nonna was a neighbour who died about 5 years ago, Mum somehow inherited this chair which she then had recovered and gave to me.
Nonna is famous for dressing exclusively in beige and decorating her house in all shades of beige and brown.


We call the chair ' the purple chair' because when mum gave it to me it had a small purple cushion on it.
The cushion ended up outside with one of Kate's games and slowly and quite rightly faded to a pale beige.


This chair is a fireside chair, it is just right for knitting, the chair arms are in just the right position but being wooden they get a bit uncomfortable on the elbows thus the ever present crocheted rugs to soften the situation.

It also tends to become a dumping ground for things that other people think I might like to mend or stray doileys sit here until they find a purpose.

At the moment the purple chair also houses a cushion Louis made for me when he was in Grade six, it's embroidered with the message ' FOR MUM'.








I would dearly love a room of my own but with a small house and one of my children currently sleeping in a room not much bigger than a shoe box ( my old sewing room) I have to continue to love the playroom, my creative space.

Too, too beautiful.


Not a sign of colour on the iris yesterday when I looked out the kitchen window.

This morning Iris decided it was time to say hello to Magnolia.

I have this lovely book , dating from the early 1950s, written by Julia Cairns.
It is an British book and aimed at people just beginning to redecorate after World War 2 and the years of rationing that followed.









She uses so many beautiful, joyful colours though the furniture and soft furnishing designs seem very traditional.
The interior design ideas seem to be before the great push to be modern with all the modern surfaces we associate with the fifties such as laminex and lino, vinyl and chrome.



But there is definitely a celebration of colour, of increasing choices and also the chance for home ownership.
It is a very interesting read written in a very chatty style.

Spring fair crafty goodness

We are cutting






and stitching

and having fun, making things for next weekend's school fair.

In the front garden after breakfast in the sunshine

It's the AFL Grand Final today, that's football, Aussie style.
Big day for the fans and a big day for people who sell footy franks ( skinny hot dogs), meat pies and beer.

I'm going for St Kilda, they haven't won since 1966, their only win, and my brother has been a fan since then. I had an uncle by marriage who played for St Kilda in the 1966 premiership side and of course another Tassie boy was the captain. My brother chose St Kilda as his team way back then and has stuck with them through thick and thin, and there has been a lot of thin.

So for my brother's sake, I'll go for the Sainters.
Carn the Saints!!

( love a good game of footy)

Scenes from a Friday morning

My radio, my sewing time friend, waiting for me to get started.






A Badger cat in a basket full of cotton yarn.







The big couch left all in a mess from the night before.








The little couch , already taken over by Phoebe the cat .

This became my working place later in the morning.
I had a lot of doll knitting to do and this spot, with a cat beside me to keep me warm, a place to put my feet up, a handy stool to rest my cuppa on, a Mad Men DVD and I was set.

365 Handcrafted Thrifty Days.

I have decide to take up Tif's challenge, to join her and several other brave souls .
For the next 365 days, well starting from Sunday , I am challenging myself to make what I can and buy only handcrafted or second hand goods for my home and my wardrobe.
You can read more about the challenge here

As Tif states, I plan to get creative with whatever my home and my wardrobe may require over the next 365 days, and again, as Tif says, only time will tell if I can pull it off.









There will be exceptions.
I give myself permission to buy whatever I need for my dollmaking.
And as I will be making clothes although I have plenty of fabric I am sure to run out of thread so that's on the free list too.
I really do want to see if I can just use what I have on hand instead of thinking I always need another piece of fabric.







Like all the other challengees I reserve the right to buy firsthand underwear (and tights and socks) and I'll happily accept gifts.








My husband and my children are not included in this challenge.
Also, as Christmas and birthdays are the main time my children actually get new clothes and trinkets I will buy them what they need but I will also make them gifts and buy handmade for them too.







As I look around me much of what I see in my home is already second hand or hand me down or repurposed or handmade, or sometimes hand-me-down-home-mades!






I think my biggest challenge will be not buying new books, my love affair with The Book Depository will have to lie low.
Though I must admit to doing some last minute panic buying today.
Etsy and the local markets and shops like Cocoon and Ruby Pear will become my new best friend for special things that I can't make myself, plus of course the usual op shops that I haunt.








And, because I can't subscribe to the English Country Living magazine I am giving myself permission to buy just that one mag each month.

Is that too many exceptions?







Oh and if I should need some shoes, though I rarely buy shoes or boots and do sometimes buy second hand, hardly used shoes, but as my winter boots are almost through the soles and cannot be repaired I may have to buy new boots next winter but we shall see.

So, the challenge begins for me on Sunday.
When my home or my wardrobe needs something I will look first to what I already have and use that before I start looking further afield and will do my best not to take the easy option of buying something new and mass produced from the shops.

Each of these pictures contains op shop( thrift shop) , second hand and homemade goodness.
I have been doing this for years, well most of my adult life if the truth be told but I'm looking forward to living within the rules of my challenge.

Just thinking about the challenge and the exemptions I think I need is starting to make me aware of my priorities, this is going to be very interesting.
I think I will do a progress report once a week to see how I'm going.

If you want to join in just let Tif, the Dottie Angel know and she will add you to her list.

Kate and I had the best find at the op shop ( thrift/charity shop) on Monday.









This gorgeous rocking deck chair







Isn't it just so pretty?
The cushion is the one Mum made for me a couple of years ago, it suits it don't you think?

Stephen picked up the chair yesterday because we couldn't carry it home on the bus.

Kate and I agree the best thing about it is that both Stephen and Andy think it is uncomfortable whereas the girlie bottoms think it's just fine.


I do have some other old deck chairs that belonged to mum.
She gave them to us years ago and I had them out the other day measuring them for new canvas.








Last night was Brown Owls and the lovely Isis taught a capacity crowd how to make a hand bound book.
Impressed?
I was.
By the way, Isis has an Etsy shop if you want to see some of her work.



We used a method called Coptic binding which once you twigged to the idea was easy and fun.







This blog has some amazing and beautiful examples of coptic binding.
We definitely learned the beginners version.
There is a good tutorial on you tube, and lots more listed, and here is another bloggers tutorial.








I used ordinary copier paper and the covers of a Little Golden Book that I had two copies of, it has illustrations by Corinne Malvern, very cute.
So after I cut the covers off I was left with the lovely story illustrations.
Now I'll have to think of something wonderful to do with them.

washing

Gads , I had such fun yesterday, I washed and washed all day long.
Never has a person had so much fun doing the laundry.



You might remember our washing machine problems earlier in the year.
Stephen triumphed and was able to fix the washing machine ( and the car).

Unfortunately about a month ago the machine died again only this time it died with all our underwear inside and the door just refused to open.
No matter what anyone did it kept its O shaped mouth firmly shut.








Stephen tried to work his magic again and was almost successful.
He got the door open and was fiddling around with something on the back of the machine when the door slammed shut.
He tried to pull the door open again and the handle broke off, so, I'm afraid to say, he completely lost it and smashed the control panel of the tormenting horror with a hammer!!!!
Bye bye washing machine.



And so began the days of hand washing, again, and looking for a new machine.

It was delivered on Sunday.
A new to us, that is reconditioned second hand machine that I have fallen rapturously in love with.
What a wonderous thing a washing machine is.









So yesterday, I washed everything that wasn't nailed down and I would still be going today except its raining and I would feel a little foolish filling the line with clean washing in the rain.


Ahhh!
All's right with my little world!







All today's pictures are from my archives.
I was too busy washing and singing yesterday to pause for camera moments.